Very Rare Binio of Tacitus

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 984. Estimate $20000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $17000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Tacitus. AD 275-276. AV Double Aureus or Binio (5.65 g, 6h). Siscia mint. 1st emission, 2nd phase, AD 276. IMP C M CL TACITVS AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, holding spear over left shoulder / ROMAE AE-TERNAE, Roma seated left on shield, holding Victory on a globe in right hand, sceptre in left. Cf. RIC V 174; BN pl. 93, 404; Calicó 4103 (same dies). EF, hairlines in reverse fields. Very rare.

From a North American Collection. Ex Triton VII (13 January 2004), lot 1026.

Double aurei or biniones distinguished by a radiate crown were first introduced by Caracalla as part of the extensive monetary reform in AD 215. The weight standard of the aureus was reduced to about 6.54 g at 50 to the pound. By the early part of the reign of Gallienus these radiate aurei declined in weight from about 13.00 g to about 4.50 g and soon disappeared while laureate aurei declined from about 6.54 g to just over 1.00 g, or a scruple (1.137 g). Such small coins would have seemed unattractive at military liberalities. It took the reform of Aurelian in 274 AD to re-establish the 6.54 g weight standard of laureate aurei, some explicitly tariffed at 50 to the pound (cf. RIC 17-18), and a heavier series, with radiate busts, probably representing double aurei, although their average weight is only 8.5 g (cf. RIC 8-9).

In AD 275, Aurelian was murdered by a group of officers and the army passed the next appointment of emperor to the Senate, which chose the 75 year old Tacitus who claimed descent from the famous historian. Tacitus inherited a difficult economic situation, but broadly continued the monetary policy of Aurelian with two groups of gold issues: a heavier series of about 6.54 g, similar to the aurei of Caracalla but with and without radiate busts; and a lighter laureate aureus series of about 70-72 to the pound with an average weight of 4.61 g. The choice of laureate and radiate busts for the heavy series seems arbitrary, but there is a possibility that the radiates were destined for military distribution. The omission, however, of the radiate bust from the light series and the tradition of its indicating double units of aurei, denarii, and sestertii, or at least heavier ones, allow us to speculate that the radiate gold was intended, at least in part, to be seen as “doubles” or “biniones.”